Politics And Current Events

[NAN]

While I agree that there’s very little he can do in the situation, the optics are bad.

Agree. And this happens on all sides like you mentioned in another post. Most politicans have no sense of reality when it comes to this, and the optics are horrible.

There may be nothing he can do, but when you are up and leaving when you are supposed to be a leader during a crisis, that is bad.

I think the contrast is pretty incredible, here you have Ted Cruz taking a holiday in Cancun, turn on the cable news and there's Beto on talking about making cold calls to stranded senior citizens. This isn't like some abstract crisis like the government debt, or cancel culture that Cruz is designed to address, it's a real catastrophe that requires collective action on multiple levels.

The democrats are not right about everything, but at least possessing the desire to improve things through government action is preferable IMO.

I'm talking more the optics side. When you have some dem governors/leaders saying to stay home, they are shutting down businesses during a pandemic, and not to travel, and then they go out to dinner or travel somewhere, that's as bad optics as this.

And Cruz is just a dick for picking up and leaving during this and doing nothing.

[King Colby]

I just dont get it. Hopefully I never find out.

[MR25]

I don't know 36° indoors sounds more than a little uncomfortable.

And hypothermia can set in at temps as high as 40°F, dependent on other factors of environment.

[nocera]

I just dont get it. Hopefully I never find out.

You're in the dark for multiple days while the temp inside your house gets to below freezing. Maybe you have an elderly person living with you, or a newborn. It's easy to see how it could turn deadly really quickly for those who are high-risk. On top of that, people are desperate to heat their homes and warm up their family so they do something drastic like bring in a grill or use a vehicle. A lot of deaths/emergency room visits are due to carbon monoxide poisoning. Four others died in a fire caused by candles. The cold/blackout may not be the direct cause of death but these people would still be alive if they had power.

[NTP66]

I just dont get it. Hopefully I never find out.

You're in the dark for multiple days while the temp inside your house gets to below freezing. Maybe you have an elderly person living with you, or a newborn. It's easy to see how it could turn deadly really quickly for those who are high-risk. On top of that, people are desperate to heat their homes and warm up their family so they do something drastic like bring in a grill or use a vehicle. A lot of deaths/emergency room visits are due to carbon monoxide poisoning. Four others died in a fire caused by candles. The cold/blackout may not be the direct cause of death but these people would still be alive if they had power.

Very much this. Desperation leads to drastic measures, like trying to heat your home with your stove, which can have deadly consequences.

[DigitalGypsy66]

We just had another trailer nearby that caught fire because of a space heater. Two dead. This happens several times a winter.

[King Colby]

I have no sympathy for people who run their grill, generator, or car inside. Like I said, happens in Florida all the time after hurricanes and those people get laughed at.

I'm sure I'm underselling the dangers of the coldness inside the house otherwise but outside of a frail old person or a newborn I find it hard to believe there wouldnt be 100% survival.

Not sure where I'm going with this other than I would expect almost all people's survival instincts to be able to weather this storm so to speak.

[Morkle]

Side note, it is wild how cheap real estate is in texas. I'm looking at new construction houses for sub 400 that are 5 bedrooms with 3+ bathrooms.

They must be built out of cardboard.

[NAN]

I just dont get it. Hopefully I never find out.

Like others have said, I think the vast majority of able body people would be able to survive it, but the elderly and the young would have a difficult time.

And even worse is the running water. You can go buy water to drink, but you can't flush toilets, and even then, with the cold pipes could be freezing. You could literally be living in **** for a few days.

[dodint]

At least 24 people have died so far due to the storm/power outages. It's deadly.

"They would have died from other causes anyway."

[MR25]

But did they have pre-existing conditions?

[NTP66]

Even outside of deaths, there's going to be an absolute flood of homeowners insurance claims on busted pipes and the likes, for those who actually have it.

[shmenguin]

I'm talking more the optics side. When you have some dem governors/leaders saying to stay home, they are shutting down businesses during a pandemic, and not to travel, and then they go out to dinner or travel somewhere, that's as bad optics as this.

Newsome having a fundraising dinner during a random portion of a 18 month pandemic is the same as Ted Cruz going to Cancun during a the tight 1 week period where Texas is in a once-a-century mega crisis? Ok, yeah, sounds great. Everything's the same as everything. Those wacky politicians. What'll they do next. I mean Pelosi was so hypocritical when she got that haircut. I think that's pretty much the same as regional leaders leaving the country instead of doing something useful for the people they tricked into electing them.

[MalkinIsMyHomeboy]

during hurricanes I feel like the majority of the deaths are due to carbon monoxide poisoning (people running their car/generator in garages mostly). I wonder how many of these deaths are also due to that

[Pavel Bure]

I just dont get it. Hopefully I never find out.

Like others have said, I think the vast majority of able body people would be able to survive it, but the elderly and the young would have a difficult time.

And even worse is the running water. You can go buy water to drink, but you can't flush toilets, and even then, with the cold pipes could be freezing. You could literally be living in **** for a few days.

This train of thought is unironically very similar to how people have viewed the pandemic. The cold kills people in Pittsburgh every year and we know what to expect. Texans had very little reason to be prepped for freezing weather, now their government is failing them with deadly consequences.

[NAN]

I'm talking more the optics side. When you have some dem governors/leaders saying to stay home, they are shutting down businesses during a pandemic, and not to travel, and then they go out to dinner or travel somewhere, that's as bad optics as this.

Newsome having a fundraising dinner during a random portion of a 18 month pandemic is the same as Ted Cruz going to Cancun during a the tight 1 week period where Texas is in a once-a-century mega crisis? Ok, yeah, sounds great. Everything's the same as everything. Those wacky politicians. What'll they do next. I mean Pelosi was so hypocritical when she got that haircut. I think that's pretty much the same as regional leaders leaving the country instead of doing something useful for the people they tricked into electing them.

[shmenguin]

I'm talking more the optics side. When you have some dem governors/leaders saying to stay home, they are shutting down businesses during a pandemic, and not to travel, and then they go out to dinner or travel somewhere, that's as bad optics as this.

Newsome having a fundraising dinner during a random portion of a 18 month pandemic is the same as Ted Cruz going to Cancun during a the tight 1 week period where Texas is in a once-a-century mega crisis? Ok, yeah, sounds great. Everything's the same as everything. Those wacky politicians. What'll they do next. I mean Pelosi was so hypocritical when she got that haircut. I think that's pretty much the same as regional leaders leaving the country instead of doing something useful for the people they tricked into electing them.

good point.

both sidesing is over. this is another thing where you lop off the common denominators and see what's left - which is ted cruz going to cancun and leaving behind a windmill conspiracy to fill the news cycle in his absence. it's a level cruelty and cynicism that is completely asymmetric across the parties.

[King Colby]

I'm talking more the optics side. When you have some dem governors/leaders saying to stay home, they are shutting down businesses during a pandemic, and not to travel, and then they go out to dinner or travel somewhere, that's as bad optics as this.

Newsome having a fundraising dinner during a random portion of a 18 month pandemic is the same as Ted Cruz going to Cancun during a the tight 1 week period where Texas is in a once-a-century mega crisis? Ok, yeah, sounds great. Everything's the same as everything. Those wacky politicians. What'll they do next. I mean Pelosi was so hypocritical when she got that haircut. I think that's pretty much the same as regional leaders leaving the country instead of doing something useful for the people they tricked into electing them.

What can Cruz accomplish by staying in Texas other than not being an insensitive tone deaf dick bag?

[CBear3]

Honestly, yes I see them as equivalent. It's not once in a century, it's the third time in 32 years Texas has been frozen. Meanwhile, a true once in a century pandemic that had CA officials telling people they can't practically leave their house or visit family is hanging out in close proximity to mild acquaintances.
I can't believe I'm going to defend Cruz here, but he's got two girls, roughly the age of my daughters. If you assume the dude is human (questionable) his girls have been looking forward to getting away with their dad for months probably, maybe more depending on what the pandemic did to their personal life. Damn near anything he can do from Washington he can do from Cancun.
Could he find a way to get into Texas, find a charitable organization and hand out blankets? He probably could, but his tangible impact would be zero. It'd all be for "optics" and sometimes you just say screw what it looks like to other people, I'm going to do what my family needs me to do right now.

[count2infinity]

Well, for one, he could not be an insensitive tone deaf dick bag...

[meow]

This is Ted Cruz. He can’t not be a dick

[meow]

Honestly, yes I see them as equivalent. It's not once in a century, it's the third time in 32 years Texas has been frozen. Meanwhile, a true once in a century pandemic that had CA officials telling people they can't practically leave their house or visit family is hanging out in close proximity to mild acquaintances.
I can't believe I'm going to defend Cruz here, but he's got two girls, roughly the age of my daughters. If you assume the dude is human (questionable) his girls have been looking forward to getting away with their dad for months probably, maybe more depending on what the pandemic did to their personal life. Damn near anything he can do from Washington he can do from Cancun.
Could he find a way to get into Texas, find a charitable organization and hand out blankets? He probably could, but his tangible impact would be zero. It'd all be for "optics" and sometimes you just say screw what it looks like to other people, I'm going to do what my family needs me to do right now.

meow agrees with this

[shmenguin]

I'm talking more the optics side. When you have some dem governors/leaders saying to stay home, they are shutting down businesses during a pandemic, and not to travel, and then they go out to dinner or travel somewhere, that's as bad optics as this.

Newsome having a fundraising dinner during a random portion of a 18 month pandemic is the same as Ted Cruz going to Cancun during a the tight 1 week period where Texas is in a once-a-century mega crisis? Ok, yeah, sounds great. Everything's the same as everything. Those wacky politicians. What'll they do next. I mean Pelosi was so hypocritical when she got that haircut. I think that's pretty much the same as regional leaders leaving the country instead of doing something useful for the people they tricked into electing them.

What can Cruz accomplish by staying in Texas other than not being an insensitive tone deaf dick bag?

he can tell his MAGA followers that renewable energy had absolutely no significant impact on what they're going through for starters and remove politics and conspiracies from the landscape to make room for actual progress. he can maybe take a look at what Beto's up to and do something similar. He could mobilize his support and try to help people. It's a weird notion, I know.

[King Colby]

I'm talking more the optics side. When you have some dem governors/leaders saying to stay home, they are shutting down businesses during a pandemic, and not to travel, and then they go out to dinner or travel somewhere, that's as bad optics as this.

Newsome having a fundraising dinner during a random portion of a 18 month pandemic is the same as Ted Cruz going to Cancun during a the tight 1 week period where Texas is in a once-a-century mega crisis? Ok, yeah, sounds great. Everything's the same as everything. Those wacky politicians. What'll they do next. I mean Pelosi was so hypocritical when she got that haircut. I think that's pretty much the same as regional leaders leaving the country instead of doing something useful for the people they tricked into electing them.

good point.

both sidesing is over. this is another thing where you lop off the common denominators and see what's left - which is ted cruz going to cancun and leaving behind a windmill conspiracy to fill the news cycle in his absence. it's a level cruelty and cynicism that is completely asymmetric across the parties.

Your new go to is this common denominator cancel out BS.

Thats not how it works.

You don't just arbitrarily (and conveniently) select two events and eliminate the not-as-bad one because the other was worse.

Otherwise the new bar for behavior is "just make sure its not quite as bad as that other guy did once"

Amazingly, two things can be bad, mutually exclusive of one another.

[Trip McNeely]

How does Ted Cruz have aspirations to run for the presidency? Like who the hell would vote for that weirdo